Thursday, August 25, 2011

A trip to Buffalo, Tuesday, Aug 16, 2011

We woke up this morning and got ready for the trip out of town. We had breakfast and lunch at home, then headed to Buffalo. Mom had a doctor's appointment for her foot at 2:15 PM, so we left at 12:40. Mom, the children, Susan, her son, and I all rode up there in the van. Mom told the doctor that we were heading the zoo afterward, so they got her in quickly. We were headed to the zoo within 30 minutes.

My children have always loved the Buffalo Zoo. As soon as you walk in, you see the elephants. We got pictures in front of the elephants, then headed over to the sea lions. My youngest loved the "dolphins." They would swim back and forth. My daughter explained that dolphins are blue and sea lions are black. He was still convinced that they are dolphins. All three of them kept running back and forth to see them swim. It was his favorite exhibit at the zoo. We walked over and saw the otters next. They were more active than I had ever seen them before. I lifted my youngest up to see them. He enjoyed watching them swim and play together. We then proceeded to the Lorikeet exhibit, where we were just in time to feed them. The children were apprehensive about holding the little paper cup for the lorikeets to eat out of, so I helped them. Once they saw that it would be safe, they wanted to do it themselves. We were in the exhibit for quite a while as there were several people trying to feed them. Finally all they food was gone, only after one of the birds stole the cup from Caleb. It proceeded to dump the food out, so I think it would have been better off not being so grabby :).

While we were in with the Lorikeets, Jim, Colette, Bob, Bre, my three youngest nieces, Chris, and Keller showed up at the zoo. Mom, Susan and her son went to get them into the zoo. By the time the birds were fed, we went to the elephant exhibit and found everyone there. We had about 25 minutes left to spend at the zoo, so we did a very fast tour. We saw the sea lions and otters again, then went to the rain forest exhibit and swung by the bears on our way out. We had to meet Dad and Brenda at the Old Country Buffet, or we would have spent more time in the zoo.

Off to the Old Country Buffet we all went. We met Dad and Brenda a little late, but we got there nonetheless. Thankfully we had gotten coupons where two children eat free with a paying adult, so all the children were free, except my 12 yr-old nephew. I had an interesting, and gross, problem at the Old Country Buffet. None of the food, or toppings, were labeled. They had stuffed baked potatoes, and next to it, something that looked like sour cream. I am a lover of baked potatoes, so I grabbed that, put on the "sour cream," headed to the salad bar and added some mushrooms and black olives and back to the table I went. When I bit into the baked potato, I knew instantly that it wasn't sour cream. I chewed a few times to try to figure out what it was... it was horseradish sauce. As much as I love baked potatoes, I hate horseradish. I don't eat cocktail sauce, I don't put horseradish sauce on roast beef sandwiches, it makes me sick. I ran directly to the bathroom and spit it out. I then ate some desserts to try to wash the taste out of my mouth, all that accomplished was consuming way too many calories and not wanting to see food for a while.

My children sat with their cousin at the table next to me. They totally enjoyed the time together. You could tell that it was as if they were eating all by themselves, even though all the parents were very close by. After everyone was done eating, it was time to head to the Bison ballgame. We all loaded into separate cars, and went to the stadium. The lines were long but worth the wait. Once we got in the stadium, we found the seats and watched the ballgame. Out came the peanuts and sunflower seeds, which made all the children, and many adults happy. I couldn't eat another thing after trying to wash that taste out of my mouth. Roland showed up after work, while we were still waiting in line, so we all went in together. Dad made it on the Jumbo Tron twice. It was really cute to see him up there. Bob made it on once.

The Bisons won the ball game in the bottom of the 7th. If the Mud Hens catcher could have held on to the ball at home, the guy that scored the winning run would have been out. I never thought that it would even be a close game at home. There were fireworks after the game, which we sat through. It was really loud because we were so close to where they were letting them off. My children enjoyed watching them a lot.

The day in Buffalo had come to an end. Who knows, if and when, we will ever return to Buffalo. It was a fun day. I headed home with Brenda, my children, Jim and Colette. I drove and followed Dad, Mom, Bob and Susan. Dad was driving. By the time we got home, we were ready for bed. It was somewhere around midnight.